Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

As the Senator knows, I was not here at the time of the 2015 legislation but it is my understanding from talking to officials that this provision was seen as a necessity that stemmed from the then constitutional situation. What we are doing now is ensuring that the specific restrictions on the applicability of an AHD to a pregnant person, which is understood as being necessitated by the previous constitutional position and as such put into the 2015 Act, is no longer required within the revised legislation.

To speak to the Senator’s more general point, I recall the fact that an AHD allows a person to set out their treatment in specific circumstances. If the directive is silent on the issue with regard to the interaction of a pregnancy with a particular treatment, it does not apply in that situation and the regular treatments that medical practitioners can undertake will occur. I do not think that the-----